The present invention relates to packaging machinery and, in particular, to equipment for forming a plastic bag and for facilitating the filling of the bag with produce or the like before sealing the open end thereof.
The packaging of fresh produce such as carrots in individual retail sales wrappers is generally accomplished by hand which is both time-consuming and costly. When produce is shipped in bulk from the processing plant to the retail outlet in large containers, spoilage and damage often occur due to the shear weight of the contained produce and the inherent shifting and jostling that occurs during shipment. This spoilage reduces the saleable quantities and further increases overall costs.
It was with the above problems in mind and with the objective of developing equipment for packaging various types of produce in plastic bags that the present invention was made. The packaging machine to be described generally comprises a hopper arrangement for receiving quantities of produce and means for metering the produce by volume into extensible plastic bags that are formed by the machine and which are held adjacent to an expandable snout or nozzle through which the measured volume of produce is inserted into the stretched bag. Subsequently, the bag is sealed and tied off or otherwise, upon contraction, forms a relatively skin-tight fit about the contained produce. This serves to inhibit spoilage of the packaged product.
Associated with the bag filling assembly is an apparatus for indexably conveying a folded film by driven rollers to a spreading assembly, where the open end of the folded film is separated and each side of the film is clamped in an expandable jaw assembly. Thereafter, the film web is simultaneously sealed and severed via a moving hot knife/anvil assembly so as to essentially seal the sides of the bag. Subsequently, the mouth of the bag is expanded, while the bag is lowered and rotated so as to receive the snout of the produce feeder. Proper drive control and sequencing to the various assemblies is obtained by a timing mechanism comprising a plurality of motor driven cams.
The present invention thus comprises an integral and automatic assembly for producing a bag and for receiving and stuffing measured quantities of produce into the bag. The bag is formed by sealing the side edges of a folded film having a width corresponding to the desired bag length.